Complexity
By ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or places, although I do own this story and some elements of the characterizations of Al Potter, his siblings and their cousins, Ben, Abigail, and Dittany.
A/N: The name of the regular Celestina Warbeck album, 'You Stole My Cauldron but You Can't Have my Heart,' that I used in the 'Musicality' chapter came from the Harry Potter Lexicon and their sections on the little Daily Prophet articles JKR wrote once. However, the name of the Christmas album in this chapter is my own mediocre attempt. :)
A/N 2: In which Al and Dittany hide in the office after the Yule Ball of their seventh year (two years after the time Al asked her to the Yule Ball in the last chapter).
Chapter Eleven: Calamity
"Are we quite sure they won't think to look up here to kill you?" a girl's voice whispers on the stairs.
Snape is wide awake and not at all surprised to see a swish of an invisibility cloak as two seventh-year Gryffindors in dress robes emerge from underneath.
"We can only hope," says Al. "I suppose I could just tell the office to not let them enter." He holds up his unlit wand and points it at a candlestick resting on top of the display case filled with Dumbledore's silver trinkets and the sword of Gryffindor. "Incendio," he whispers, and then turns to smile up at the portraits. "Sorry about this."
"We couldn't sleep with the racket from the Yule Ball anyway," mutters Dilys Derwent in annoyance.
"Shouldn't you two be down with the racket?" asks the bewigged witch with a giggle.
"Probably," Al states with a shrug. "But we've been to three such rackets together, and, besides, we'd rather not be killed by my cousin or my sister."
"I'm not quite sure which of them would be worse," Dittany mumbles, as she fingers the sleeve of her pale green dress robe.
"Lily," replies Al. "Not to be stereotypical, but she's a Slytherin. You've seen what she can do in Dueling Club." Dittany nods and sits on a window seat to stare out at the Forbidden Forest.
"That is the first sensible point you have made, Potter," says Phineas Nigellus smugly.
Al rolls his eyes and stands next to where Dittany is sitting, twirling his wand over and over again between his fingers. "She isn't performing Dark Magic," he remarks with a sigh.
"And it isn't as if Rose lacks brains," Dittany adds. "She's a regular whiz like her mum."
"It's making me begin to think Ravenclaws just get placed in Gryffindor to boost our grades," Al mutters sarcastically.
"Ah, Gryffindors," says Snape wryly. "You all think everyone else does not know the secret of your house."
Al groans. "I'm sorry I walked into that."
"Anyway," says Dittany exasperatedly, "what are we going to do about this?"
"Lily and Rose and Score, you mean," Al mutters, as he suddenly turns somber. "Personally, I'm not quite sure how this happened."
"Well, Lily does spend about as much time with Score as Rose does with them both being in the same house and all," suggests Dittany.
"I can't believe Scorpius showed up to the Yule Ball a month after breaking up with Rose with my sister as his date!"
"A love triangle," Elizabeth, the witch in the wig, gushes.
"I think Score was more just trying to get Rose back," Dittany says.
"Ah, that is always a foolish thing to do," sighs Dippet.
Al begins, "And now Lily's…"
"… In love with him?" Dittany suggests.
"It must've been there for a while then," grumbles Al.
"You just had to open your big mouth when Score and Rose were talking nicely by the punch," Dittany sighs, "and say something ridiculous like, 'I'm glad you two are better. I was a little worried with you coming here with Lily, Score.'"
"How was I to know that Rose hadn't seen Scorpius and Lily come in together?" Al asks.
"Silly boy," teases Dittany.
Snape wants very badly to take twenty points from Gryffindor for nauseating displays, but he does not have that power any longer. He makes a mental note to discuss this with McGonagall later, despite knowing as well as everyone else that she will just shake her head and deny him his pleasure.
However, it does not help that Dittany and Al had been dating since the Yule Ball two years prior and that Dittany now snuck up to the office alone sometimes. She and Al were having contests with each other over who could learn a piano piece to gain the vote of the portraits (Dittany had been forced by her muggle mother to learn how to play the instrument at about the age of six, and she was mildly annoyed to hear that her boyfriend had learned all of the movements of the "Moonlight Sonata" and then some by memory after only three years of playing. She did, however, feel the need to tease him over knowing how to play every Celestina Warbeck song on her first album and her Christmas album, 'You Can Charm Me Under the Mistletoe, Baby.')
There is the sound of the moving staircase suddenly shifting into life, and the two teenagers in the office scramble for the invisibility cloak. The office is silent for a moment, and then the door bursts open.
McGonagall appears with an iron grip on the shoulder of Rose Weasley. Slughorn, flanked on either side by Scorpius and Lily, is behind them with Professor Longbottom in the rear.
Angrily, McGonagall sits at her desk. Snape watches out of the corner of his eye as Al quickly hides one of his trainers that had still been visible.
"Professor Longbottom, Professor Slughorn," says McGonagall presently. "As these three students' Heads of House, I believe it is your duty to properly take the necessary amount of points from them and any other punishment you deem fit."
"Yes, headmistress," says Neville Longbottom calmly, but Slughorn calls McGonagall by her first name.
"If I may," continues Neville, "I would like the talk to these three here alone as a friend of the families…" He smiles wearily, but McGonagall nods and turns to Slughorn.
"If you have no objections, Horace…"
"Of course not," says Slughorn. "I rather hoped to be able to return to the festivities."
"Yes," McGonagall agrees. "Then I defer this to you."
There is silence after two of the professors leave. Her robes torn clean off at the sleeves, Lily is leaning against a bookcase with a scowl on her pale face, while Scorpius droops next to the door and Rose stares at the ceiling.
Casually, Neville lets out a breath and waves his wand at the room. "Homenum Revelio!" he shouts. The space next to the window glows, and Neville steps forward to pluck the invisibility cloak off of the two hidden teenagers. Al and Dittany make loud protestations of their innocence, but Neville cuts them off with a hand.
"Now that we're all visible," he says with a gentle smile, "I think it's time for a talk without having to resort to going to your parents. Well, except for you, Dittany." His daughter groans.
"With muggles, we have to worry about physical weapons," Neville continues, as he sits behind McGonagall's desk. "With magical children such as yourselves, we have to worry about you seriously hurting each other with your spells, which can be considering more harmful in some cases." He pauses and frowns at each of them.
"Rose Perdita Weasley," he says, "I never want to see you perform Diffindo on another person's clothing ever again. You may think your aim is perfect, but I know you slipped and cut Lily's arms a little." Lily does not uncross her arms, but Snape can spot a little red on her skin where her sleeves had been. "Where is your brother, by the way?"
"Hugh is probably off with his girlfriend in the gardens," suggests Dittany after a long silence. "Not, I might add, doing anything more than stargazing."
"Ah, I see." Neville whispers. "Then, I can only assume the girl is Sarah Finder."
Dittany nods and then turns back to staring at a spot on the floor.
Sighing, Neville continues on with his opinions. "Lily Potter, I suggest next time you not use the Levitation Charm to pelt people with the entire contents of the refreshment table. You hurt some people with soaring glasses and bowls of punch." Lily grimaces and looks away. Neville nods to himself and then stares at Scorpius, who visibly flinches, "Scorpius Malfoy, I don't want to ever see you being foolish enough to scorn two women. Am I clear?"
"Yes, sir," whispers the blond boy.
"Albus Potter."
"Yes, Neville?" Al says happily.
"Has my daughter properly chastised you for running off at the mouth?"
"Yes… Professor Longbottom," says Al, sighing mournfully.
"Neville is still fine outside of the classroom, Al," states Neville with a chuckle. "I still have known you since the day you came into this world screaming louder than a mandrake."
Al smiles, and Neville leans back in his chair and regards his offspring. "Well, what should I tell you, Ditty?"
"That I should keep my friends on a shorter leash?" she suggests.
Neville laughs again and mutters, "Perhaps. You know, truly brave people have the courage to – "
" – Stand up to their friends," groans Dittany. "I know, Dad."
"Good," says Neville. There a silence in which Lily finally looks up and bites her lip guiltily. "Well then," the Herbology professor continues. "I think it's time for the punishment aspect of this. So, since there were two Slytherins directly involved, that will be thirty points from Slytherin and then fifteen points from Gryffindor."
Another silence and then Neville says, "Well, can I trust that you can all go to your respective common rooms without killing each other in the hallways?"
There is a chorus of variations on 'yes, sir.' "Wonderful," Neville states. "Then, off you all go."
All five students exit until only Professor Longbottom remains. He sits in McGonagall's chair for a while and then glances back at Snape specifically. "How was that for discipline, Professor Snape?" he asks amusedly.
"You were better than Potter would have been, I suspect," Snape admits. He is mildly annoyed that the student who most feared him in his entire teaching career is not overly bothered by him anymore. It makes him feel… well, old.
"That is a weak compliment, but I'll take it, I guess," Neville says with a laugh.
No one, Snape decides, appreciates Slytherin intimidation anymore.
A/N: In the next chapter, we will probably finally get to see Al as an adult, graduated and hired at Hogwarts. It should be fun. Please review this chapter!
A/N 2: On another note, I gave Rose the middle name of Perdita, not because of the Dalmatian in 101 Dalmatians, but for an entirely different reason (mostly because of her mother's name). You may find it interesting to look up. :) If not, basically, Hermione has a name from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and so does Rose now.
EDIT: SharkiesGirl brought up an excellent point about how the invisibility cloak was revealed by Neville, despite the myth in Deathly Hallows about it being undetectable. I would agree with her had I not read an interview with JKR in which she was asked: "Why is it that Albus Dumbledore can see Harry under his invisibility cloak at certain moments? (during the series is the cloak only infallible to those who do not own a deathly hallow)?"
To which she replied: "Dumbledore, who could perform magic without needing to say the incantation aloud, was using 'homenum revelio.'"
Like how the Elder Wand is supposed to be unbeatable (yet Dumbledore beat Grindlewald for it), the invisibility cloak is not perfect. The Deathly Hallows really are not exactly as they were in the myth, it seems.